MSNBC: From the ashes of 9/11, religious inspiration

Ari Schonbrun experienced first-hand the terror of Sept. 11, 2001, surviving a harrowing escape from the 78th floor of the World Trade Center, and he came away with a conclusion that might be surprising. The sequence of events that led him to survive that day — he would never call them coincidences — reinforced his belief in God and strengthened his faith as an Orthodox

Jew. Schonbrun, 49, an executive at Cantor Fitzgerald brokerage, should have been in his office on the 101st floor at 8:46 that morning, but he was running late because he had stayed at home to finish a book order with his 8-year-old son. Nobody on that floor of the north tower was heard from after the impact of American Airlines Flight 11.